H1N1 drive ends in 160 schools

BY PMA RASHEED
The Gulf Today, 29 Oct 2009

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has completed conducting H1N1 educational training programmes across all private schools in Dubai.
Commenced on Sept.1 in the beginning of this academic year, the DHA's section of community health programme conducted the training programme on prevention of the spread of the swine flu, across approximately 160 private schools in the emirate, according to a senior DHA official.
'Risk reduced'
Dr Fatima Al Attar, Head of Community Services Programme Section of the Primary Healthcare Sector at the DHA said, "By educating school nurses, doctors and administration staff about health guidelines, we could ensure that the risk of any infection is drastically reduced.
"We have asked schools to follow national protocols to reduce the risk of H1N1 in schools. The safety of children in schools is vital. It's significant to undertake swine flu preventive steps as well as provide the school administration an opportunity to raise their concerns and queries which we have addressed through this extensive training initiative," she added.
She said that the programme was headed by Dr Hamid Y Hussain, Supervisor of the School Health Community Programme and Primary Health Care Sector at DHA.
The programme was headed by Dr Hamid Y Hussain, Supervisor of the School Health Community Programme, and Primary Health Care Sector at DHA. Over 400 doctors, nurses and administration staff from various Dubai schools attended the seminar held at the Rashid Library Auditorium.
Health seminar
Dr Attar noted, "The DHA also conducted its annual seminar on school health, focusing on ways by which the school authorities can ensure reducing the risk of any infection in their premises."
The seminar had speakers from the Dubai Health Authority, the Juvenile Diabetes Education Centre (JDEC), Johnson and Johnson as well as other healthcare companies.
According to Dr Hussain, the seminar discussed the requirements that each school must follow. It also addressed healthcare challenges that schools face.
"The idea of this interaction is to help schools achieve high standards of care when their pupils are in the school environment. Schools also bear a certain amount of responsibility to educate their pupils about the precautions they should take to avoid the risk of any infection," he said.
"We have strongly emphasised on the role that schools play to protect the health of their students," he added.